Author: sammychishti@gmail.com

Key Takeaways Sleep is an underappreciated and often-neglected recovery tool and a vital element of our health and well-being. Here are some practical sleep strategies from this conversation with Nick Lambe: Take an honest look at your current relationship with sleep. If there are rooted negative beliefs and expectations, they will always drive sleep issues, no matter how many sleep hygiene strategies you try. Establish your bed, bedroom and bedtime as powerful triggers and associations for sleep and nothing else. Too often, these things are connected to being awake, worrying, struggling to sleep and more. Reduce…

You’re mid-squat, legs shaking, core braced, and suddenly—whoa!—your lower back screams louder than your gym playlist. Sound familiar?  Enter: the lifting belt. It’s not just a gym fashion statement or something only powerlifters use. When worn right, a lifting belt becomes your ultimate training partner—like a spotter that hugs your core and tells your spine, “I got you, bro.” Let’s dive into everything you need to know about lifting belts—from why they matter, how to use them, and whether you actually need one, all served up with a dose of humor and real talk. What Is a Lifting Belt? A…

    It’s “Tasty Tuesday”, where every week we bring you new, fresh, local, healthy recipes and food tips. Find out what is in season, and what will keep you fuelled during and after your work outs!   More adventures in homemade pasta. I tried making this for Valentine’s Day but ran out of time to post it…so here you go!Instructions are the same as the other homemade pastas, but making it red this time with either tomato paste or pureed roasted red pepper.Figured we’d stick with the rosé theme and make the sauce pink too. Turned out a bit more…

End your day with dessert that doubles as gut support. Cinnamon-stewed pears are layered with creamy coconut chia pudding and crunchy maple granola. Sweet, spiced, and deeply comforting―it’s the perfect closing chapter to your reset day. This recipe was originally published in the January 2026 issue of alive magazine.

If you’re trying to lose weight but you still want cereal for breakfast, the goal is simple: pick one that keeps you full so you’re not hungry again an hour later. What makes a cereal good for weight loss (my criteria) I keep it simple. For weight loss I look for cereals that are: Higher in protein (or easy to add protein with Greek yoghurt/Skyr/quark)Higher in fibreNot too high in sugar Now let’s get to the cereals. The Best Cereals for Weight Loss Click on any cereal below to jump to the details and see why it made the list.…

MSU Extension office A new year is perfect for resetting and refocusing on your health and wellness goals. Being more present or mindful is a great way to start. What is mindfulness? Mindfulness is the process or practice of gently focusing on your awareness in the present moment. Being more mindful can help you feel your best and meet the goals you set for yourself. Here are some tips to get you started. Detox digitally. Set aside at least 30 minutes each day to unplug from screens. Use this time to connect with yourself, read, or simply enjoy some quiet…

Online yoga has changed — not just in how people practice, but in how people learn, train, and build careers in yoga.What used to be a simple idea — “online yoga classes” — has quietly evolved into a complex ecosystem of platforms serving very different purposes. Today, the online yoga space includes daily practice subscriptions, professional teacher training programs, continuing education systems, therapeutic education models, and highly specialized certification pathways — all often grouped under the same label.After years of building platforms, hosting training programs, and working in this space, one thing has become clear: most people are making decisions…

Health and exercise professionals can elevate their practice by optimizing results for all clients, no matter their size, fitness level or experience with exercise, through inclusive fitness practices, proper recovery strategies and personalized programming. In this clip from a recent live webinar, our expert panel discusses the concept of exercise as a stressor, the interplay between exercise and recovery, and advice they would give their younger selves early in their careers: Smarter Program Design for Every Body (worth 0.6 ACE CECs) empowers pros with inclusive, science-backed strategies to move beyond one-size-fits-all programming and better serve the clients in front of them. Through expert-led…

Thibaut Meurisse is the French Author of over 20 great Self Help books including this one and the bestseller” Master Your Emotions”. There is an accompanying workbook to the book.He gives a seven step process to overcoming limiting beliefs and validating a new empowering mindset.He says it is important to condition our minds daily and emphasises the importance of daily, morning and evening rituals.He advises stacking a morning ritual of meditation,gratitude,affirmations and daily goal setting for maximum success and an evening ritual eg an earlier bedtime .He details the essentials of a mastery mindset which include perserverance and focusing on…

On the hunt for an easy and amazing chicken recipe for your air fryer? Look no further! Not gonna lie, I love fried chicken. I don’t have it that often though, as its so greasy and calorie laden. I was looking for a way to make chicken super crispy without having to sacrifice a lot of flavor or texture. After doing some research online and looking at various recipes, I noticed a lot of them used baking powder. Its the baking powder that acts as a secret ingredient for chicken in the air fryer that gets the chicken skin ultra…